Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union

by Vladislav M. Zubok

to become part of a new democratic Russia or stay as they were. The territories in question were Crimea and the Donbass region.56 At a round-table discussion in Moscow, Alexander Tsypko, a political scientist with Ukrainian roots, argued that this declaration could lead to a war with the two Slavic republics. It would be, he warned, worse than the conflict between Serbia and Croatia in the collapsing Yugoslavia. The only way to keep the peace would be to recognize the current borders of Ukraine. Lukin objected: “And what would remain [of Russia] after everybody took what they considered necessary?” He rejected the analogy with Yugoslavia. The Soviet Army was still under Moscow’s control. Yeltsin should quietly, but firmly, use economic pressure to force Ukraine to return Crimea, where the majority of the population were ethnic Russians. The Ukrainian leaders, he concluded, “would have enough brains to understand that they cannot operate without Russia.”